The present invention relates to fiberscopes such as bronchoscopes used to make internal inspections of the bronchial tree in medical or veterinary situations.
In usual and customary fashion, bronchoscopes include image and light guide fiber optic systems as well as mechanisms for articulating the distal end of a scope shaft as the shaft is advanced into the bronchial tree. The scopes also include one or more through channels for irrigation, suction or biopsy.
Although prior art bronchoscopes have flexible shafts of small diameter, i.e., of the order of 0.200 to 0.250 inches, they exhibit definite limitations when a bronchoscopist wishes to probe the most remote bronchioli near the ends of branches of the bronchial tree.